Throughout this disclosure, the term "pecan" is intended to define a nut, such as the pecan nut, as well as other nuts that may be found compatible for use with the present invention. A pecan half is intended to indicate one of the halves of the entire nut meat that has been separated at the top of the pecan meat where the two halves are joined. Pecan halves fetch a superior price because they are valuable for decorative uses and therefore cost more as compared to broken pecan meats. Besides all this, pecan halves just seem to taste better than an equal serving of bits and pieces of the pecan meat.
Further, the term "debris" defines the unwanted shell fragments and pithy wood that insulates the shell from the meat halves, and everything else other than the pecan meat halves.
All pecans are oblate in cross-sectional configuration, with the pecan halves or pecan meats being oriented lengthwise and the width of the halves extend along the greater dimension of the nut when viewed from the top. Consequently, it has been discovered that when the pecan shell is crushed such that it is cracked in a particular manner, and a blade is thereafter passed lengthwise between the confronting pecan halves, the unobvious result is that the pecan meat halves will almost always emerge undamaged, and are easily cleaned of any loosly attached debris. Hence the term "crush", as used herein, generally is distinguished from the term "cracked" in that the pecan shell herein has opposed compressive forces applied laterally thereto and along opposed longitudinally extending isolated areas thereof. This creates numerous small failures or cracks at opposed predetermined areas of the pecan shell that does not injure or mangle the pecan meats, otherwise the crushing operation becomes instead a cracking operation, and whole pecan meats cannot be gained from the endeavor.
There are numerous pecan crackers, or shellers, or crushers available from the prior art. Some of these pecan shellers strike the opposed ends of the pecan with an impact force that shatters the shell, leaving the pecan nut partially shelled but with the halves and much of the debris left to be removed therefrom. Most of the prior art pecan crackers are very clever and efficient for their intended use. However, there is not found amongst these prior art devices a contraption that is as efficient in operation as may be desired, and which separates the intact pecan halves from the debris to provide a preponderance of pecan halves from the pecan nuts.
It is therefore desirable to have made available an improved pecan shucker that is inexpensive to own, easy and economical to operate, which greatly enhances the removal of all of the undesirable inedible material from the pecan nut, and which gains intact pecan halves from the nut. Apparatus that achieves these desirable goals is the subject of this invention, and which is therefore referred to herein as a pecan shucker, because it does shuck the intact pecan halves from the nut.